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Christopher Ahl, Play the Game: "An excellent Middle East Football blog"

James Corbett, Inside World Football

Saturday, March 26, 2016

ILO to Qatar: Put your money where your mouth is or else

The International Labour Organization, by giving Qatar 12
months to implement labour reform, has put the Gulf state on notice that it no
longer can delay acting on promises made in the wake of its successful bid to
host the 2022 World Cup. The ILO warning rings stark as the United Arab
Emirates, Qatar’s main competitor, steps up efforts to become the region’s
prime sports hub, on the back of implementation of the very labour reforms
Qatar has yet to produce.

The ILO
threat to establish a Commission of Inquiry if Qatar fails to act in the
coming year comes amid mounting pressure on the Gulf state. Such commissions
are among the ILO’s most powerful tools to ensure compliance with international
treaties. The UN body has only established 13
such commissions in its century-long history. The last such commission was
created in 2010 to force Zimbabwe to live up to its obligations.

Piling on the pressure on Qatar, Amnesty International has
said it would issue a report
on March 31 that exposes exploitation of migrant workers on World Cup construction
sites despite the adoption of significantly working and living standards by the
Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, the Qatari body responsible for
preparing the tournament.

“The report will show how, despite limited reform efforts in
the past two years touted by the Qatari authorities and FIFA, the country’s
Kafala system under which migrant workers must be sponsored by an employer
leads to forced labour and other abuses,” Amnesty said, referring to the labour
sponsorship system that puts workers at the mercy of their employers.

The Washington-based Alliance for Workers Against Repression
Everywhere (AWARE), in another assault on Qatar’s reputation, has called for a boycott
of the Gulf state’s flagship airline, Qatar Airways, because of alleged
violations of human rights by the company and, its owner, the government. The
boycott call came as Qatar Airways expanded its reach in the United States with
the inauguration of a flight from Doha to Boston.

The mounting pressure threatens to erase considerable
goodwill that Qatar built in the wake of its 2010 successful World Cup bid by
breaking with the mould of Gulf states’ refusal to engage with their critics,
and holding out the promise of a more constructive relationship with
international human rights groups and trade unions, and significant labour
reform. Qatar became the only Gulf state to work with its critics rather than
imprison them or bar them entry to the country as most of the region’s other
countries continue to do.

In cooperation with human rights groups, organizations like
the Supreme Committee and Qatar Foundation drafted significantly improved
standards for the living and worker conditions of migrant workers who
constitute the majority of the Gulf states population. The organizations said
those standards were being implemented in all of their contracts. They stopped
short however of endorsing more political demands such as acknowledging the
right of workers to create independent unions and bargain collectively.

Human rights groups and trade unions have nonetheless grown
increasingly frustrated with the government’s failure in the last five years to
incorporate the standards in national legislation. Qatar’s failure looms large
with the United
Arab Emirates’ announcement of labour reforms described by Human Rights
Watch researcher Nicholas McGeehan as "a huge improvement and something we
would fully support and applaud."

Labour reform poses as much an existential issue in the UAE
as it does in Qatar, both states in which the citizenry accounts for at most a
mere 15 percent of the population. As a result, many Gulf citizens see granting
non-nationals any rights as opening a Pandora’s Box that could end up with them
losing control of their culture, society and state. The UAE’s ability to move
on improved working conditions adds to the pressure piling up on Qatar.

Adding to pressure, is the competition between Qatar and the
UAE, Gulf states that differ on a broad range of geopolitical issues. The UAE
has emerged as the world’s foremost shirt sponsor of European soccer leagues at
a time that sponsorship and advertising is expected to dip as a result of
reduced energy prices and austerity measures in the Gulf.

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has positioned itself as one of
the UAE’s top brands through its sponsorship of high-profile sporting events
and teams. A recent poll conducted by research firm YouGov
found that Etihad was the second most identifiable brand in the UAE.

“Football is still the cheapest advertising there is if you
want visibility… We spent US$15m on the advertising for our Jennifer Aniston
campaign and it was like a pea in the ocean. With Real Madrid we have 700
million people who love their club and the players. With Arsenal we have 500
million. We had no renewals last season and none this coming season, so we invested
at a good time, I think,” said Boutros
Boutros, senior vice president for corporate communications and marketing
at Etihad’s major competitor, Dubai-based Emirates.

Movement on the labour issue gives the UAE a leg up in its
sports rivalry with Qatar given that it blunts criticism of the emirates at a
time that they were joining Qatar as a focus of human rights groups and trade
unions. It magnifies the threat to Qatar by the ILO at a time that the
integrity of Qatar’s World Cup bid is under investigation by Swiss authorities
and could become part of a wide ranging US Department of Justice investigation
into corruption in world soccer body FIFA that has already led to tens of
indictments.

“Qatar has the financial means to make the real reforms,
ensure safe work and decent wages, and the international community is ready to
help when the government finally shows that it is serious. That day has yet to
come, but the new ruling from the ILO should hasten Qatar’s realisation that
the world will only be convinced by real change, not by public relations
exercises,” said International Trade Union Confederation general secretary
Sharan Burrow.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of
Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile